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David Campos for assembly, Wendy Aragon for City College board, soda, Muni money and the anti-speculation tax round out a controversial list of election 2014 ENDORSEMENTS. Plus: Yarrr, it's the Treasure Island Music Fest! And a new book collects George Kuchar's shouts and murmurs. Articles Online | Digital Edition

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RENEW What does the term "self-help guru" bring to your mind? How about "SF-based self-help guru"? The life coach of the Twitter execs perhaps, or HoopGirl? At any rate, it might not call up the fresh-faced man sitting next to me in a Glen Park wine bar.Read more »

Today's special treat: Johnny talks to Jim Goad, publisher of the short-lived ANSWER Me magazine, the subject of an obscenity trial in Washington in the 1990s, and the author of The Redneck Manifesto. Read more »

Glitter, check. Feathers, check. Pearls, check. Add in some fabulous lyrics, a few wildly inappropriate lines, and you've got yourself a full blown production of “Pearls over Shanghai,” performed by the fantastic Thrillpeddlers.

I wondered what Willie Brown was talking about when he wrote that making sure that D.A. office insider Paul Henderson was “taken care of” was one of only two details to be worked out, following former Mayor Gavin Newsom’s shocking last-minute appointment of former police chief George Gascón as the next District Attorney And now I think I found out: Henderson, who was former D.A. Kamala Harris’ chief of administration and her preferred pick, announced yesterday that he is dropping out of the D.A.’s race and will serve as Lee's public safety czar. Read more »

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-SF) is taking on a crucial, but challenging task: trying to cut down on the costs of the prison system by eliminating some expensive waste in two sensitive areas: Drugs and sex offenders.Read more »

Following a hearing at the San Francisco Police Commission that stretched late into the night, the seven-member panel voted 6 to 1 to authorize the San Francisco Police Department to develop a proposal for implementing Tasers or other less-lethal weapons.

Representatives from immigrant advocacy groups, communities of color, queer and transgender communities, mental-health professional organizations, and civil-rights watchdog groups turned out en masse to voice opposition to the plan. Out of around 50 speakers, just one spoke in favor of adopting Tasers. Read more »

>>1. BEARING JOY A little while ago, a Potrero Hill resident took the concept of neighborhood watch to new (artistic) heights when he came across some brazen red graffiti scrawled across the side of the Cor-o-van building on 17th street near Texas. “I just got sick of looking at it,” the impromptu artist said.

Perhaps you recall a few weeks ago when I espoused my love for Rihanna and slightly-less-intense love for the new music video for her song “S&M.” I'm saddened to report that the lovely RiRi is in a spot of trouble over the new reel – David LaChappelle is suing her for deriving the video's “composition, total concept, feel, tone, mood, theme, colours, props, settings, decors, wardrobe and lighting” from the fashion photog's work. Here's a helpful guide to the similarities between the video and LaChappelle's photos.

But you know what, Violet Blue's going with RiRi and so am I. David LaChappelle, for the love of Perez Hilton on a leash – is this video detracting from your personal worth as a pervy photog? Now you can say you made a Rihanna video and maybe people will believe you. Problem = solved! Now onto sex events. Dirty talk and sexy poetry readings, etc.

There's much political intrigue and anticipation swirling around the Central Market Payroll Tax Exclusion, aka the Twitter Tax Break, which the Board of Supervisors will consider next month. This has all the elements of a great story: backroom deals between political and corporate power brokers, the strange argument that Republican-style tax cuts will cure Mid-Market blight, the fact that Twitter executives have uttered nary a tweet about shaking down SF taxpayers, and the role that a pair of supposedly progressive supervisors have played in brokering the deal.

There’s a protest this weekend in San Francisco, in support of folks in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Morocco, and other Arab popular movements as they struggle against dictatorships and repressive governments.

Folks are invited to meet Saturday, February 26 at 1 p. m. at the U.N. Plaza at Market and 7th Street in San Francisco for a march that will feature 20 organizations, including Arab Resource and Organizing Center and American Friends Service Committee. [Update: Just got a call from ANSWER Coalition to say they did not approve the inclusion, by protest organizers, of their name as a feature organization at Saturday's protest, because they do not agree with some of the wording in the protest organizers' press release.]

“Across Arab nations popular movements for governmental, social, and economic change are arising daily since the start of 2011, with people going to the streets in the thousands and millions,” states a press release from march organizers. “ In many cases, these popular movements are being met by extreme use of force at the hands of governments and dictators whose repression has been supported by foreign assistance from the US. The most horrific of this repression has been witnessed internationally through social media broadcasting from Libya and Bahrain, where hundreds of innocent protesters have been massacred.”,p. Read more »

Those who enjoy strolling amidst a certain vibrant stretch of 24th Street in the Mission might be under a common misguided belief that the world is flat and ends east of Potrero Avenue. But just as Christopher Columbus proved the world was round by sailing west, I confirmed this is false by sailing east -- one block east of Potrero, that is. What I found was Tasty’s Creole Cajun Kitchen, a new world filled with rare goods and spices. Among them, signature po’ boy sandwiches, southern brunch specialties, gumbo, red beans and rice, hush puppies, sweet tea, even French rolls flown in from Louisiana. What wonders the new world holds!

No, I'm not talking about Democrats building shelters against the big chill that the Republicans are trying to bring down on public sector workers, and the impact of that push on folks engaged in pension reform debates in San Francisco. Instead, I'm looking at the possibility that snow could fall at sea level around San Francisco this weekend for the first time in 35 years--and wondering if gardeners need to start worrying about protecting crops and plants that don’t like icy climes. Read more »

Summarizing a report released by the Delta Stewardship Council, the article suggested that California’s salmon and Delta smelt -- a delicate creature that’s sort of an aquatic equivalent to a canary in a coal mine -- might be going the way of the dodo due to longterm environmental impacts. Even worse, it didn’t sound as if there was anything conservationists, state agencies, nor anyone else could do about it.

Aside from being downright depressing, that narrative sounded a little, er, fishy. No one disputes that the Delta has been dramatically impacted by environmental problems, and concerns about diminishing fish populations are well founded. Fights over pumping freshwater out of the Delta have been dragging on for years, pitting environmentalists and commercial fishermen against powerful water districts in arid regions.

"That album is something I've known about for a long time," Dâm Funk says of Magnetic Eyes, which was written, recorded and produced by Jeff Phelps in 1985. Thanks to the German label Tomlab, more people are finding out about Magnetic Eyes today. Along with the Tony Cook compilation produced by Dâm's cohort Peanut Butter Wolf and released on Stones Throw, Magnetic Eyes is a rediscovered jewel of '80s funk. But whereas the Cook album has roots in classic soul, Phelps' album is a cool, synth-powered collection that brings techno figurehead the Electrifying Mojo to mind. It's also blessed with peerless cover art and -- as you'll find out after the jump -- it inspired a fantastic music video. Read more »